And the question for future energy choice: Fast-track or detour?

This is IMO one of the most compelling graphics on the leapfrogging:

Developed countries have made a fossil fuel detour on the way from biomass to clean energy, but countries who have not committed to fossil fuels can make a shortcut straight to clean energy.

The electric fast-track for emerging markets | Ember

How electrotech can serve the billion people left behind by the fossil system and open up a faster path to prosperity

Ember (ember-energy.org)

That's quite a change the graphs are suggesting.

The electric fast-track for emerging markets
"How electrotech can serve the billion people left behind by the fossil system and open up a faster path to prosperity.

Across supply, connections and end-use, #leapfrogging is already visible. Around half of CVF* nations, measured by electricity demand, have already surpassed the United States in solar penetration, and half in electrification"

The electric fast-track for emerging markets | Ember

How electrotech can serve the billion people left behind by the fossil system and open up a faster path to prosperity

Ember (ember-energy.org)

*74 member nations of the Climate Vulnerable Forum

Why Solarpunk is already happening in Africa

Or: How Africa is building the future by skipping the past

(climatedrift.substack.com)

h/t @glynmoody
https://mastodon.social/@glynmoody/115558652174425347

In May 2025, African countries imported a combined 1.57 GW of solar panels from China, an all time high. (Like adding three-fourths of the capacity of the Hoover Dam in one month.) The spike didn’t come from relatively affluent African countries like South Africa, but rather from nearly two dozen smaller nations.

Less developed countries, such as Chad, have imported enough solar panels to replace their country’s entire current power generation capacity."

Africa Is Buying a Record Number of Chinese Solar Panels

Energy-starved countries on the continent have reluctantly turned to coal and gas for decades. Cheap Chinese solar panels are now finally changing the calculus.

WIRED (www.wired.com)

Households put so many panels on their rooftops that Pakistani cities now look visibly different on satellite maps."

Africa Is Buying a Record Number of Chinese Solar Panels

Energy-starved countries on the continent have reluctantly turned to coal and gas for decades. Cheap Chinese solar panels are now finally changing the calculus.

WIRED (www.wired.com)

These countries are leapfrogging "developed" countries which have painted themselves into a fossil fueled corner.

"Pakistan plans to ask Qatar to delay delivery of liquefied natural gas supply over the next five years as the South Asian country grapples with weak demand and mounting import costs."

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

(www.bloomberg.com)

The decision [is] applicable to new net-metering consumers."

Just a moment...

(www.dawn.com)

The world’s growing middle class isn’t waiting for permission to buy air conditioners. The task now is to make sure that the energy that powers them is clean — and that means having more than enough solar panels for Lahore as well as Copenhagen."

A surprise solar boom reveals a fatal flaw in our climate change projections

Energy forecasts keep underestimating the demand for power in developing countries of the Global South.

Vox (www.vox.com)

[It] is the latest sign that energy authorities are underestimating how much clean power the world demands — and that energy models can suffer from the same biases as their makers. Failing to grasp how much energy is wanted, and the things people in places like Pakistan might be willing to do to get it, leaves the world unprepared to build, fund, and plan for a cleaner future."

A surprise solar boom reveals a fatal flaw in our climate change projections

Energy forecasts keep underestimating the demand for power in developing countries of the Global South.

Vox (www.vox.com)

Today, the global North drains from the South commodities worth $2.2 trillion per year, in Northern prices."

Rich countries drained $152tn from the global South since 1960

Imperialism never ended, it just changed form.

Al Jazeera (www.aljazeera.com)

“If you divide the world into rich and poor countries – global north and global south – and you net out *all* the global financial transactions – meaning you include exports, imports, interest payments, debt payments, charity, foreign direct investment, including illicit transactions – you find that the global north takes $2 trillion a year from the global south.”

$2 tn a year.

https://www.planetcritical.com/p/decolonise-to-decarbonise-fadhel

This is the much vaunted free market at work, man.

But now the privatised grid companies are wringing their hands and it would surprise no one if the IMF imposes further terms and conditions that are unlikely to benefit Pakistan. Think energy austerity.

Hypocrites.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

(www.bloomberg.com)

“Pakistan’s [now privatised] distribution companies are losing every day as solar becomes attractive.”

But.
"The IMF has said retaining demand should be a key objective of reforms."

Seems to be the terms and conditions of the IMF loan was responsible for this "crisis".

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

(www.bloomberg.com)

"Pakistan and the IMF have agreed to restore energy sector viability as part of the bailout program, which includes cost cuts and privatization of state-owned power distribution companies."

And subsidies had to be done away with.

Predictably, electricity prices rose steeply. People started turning to solar PV.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

(www.bloomberg.com)